Telephones, both mobile and land based, are a frequently used communications tool of modern society. While basic telephone service has remained generally unchanged in terms of its features for years, there is an ever increasing demand for new telephone services.
The demand for new telephone services is prompted by a desire to render telephones easier to use and/or desires to make them more efficient communication tools. The demand for new telephone services is also fueled by the desire of individual telephone companies to; distinguish the services they offer from those of their competitors; create new revenue sources; and/or expand existing revenue sources.
In order to provide enhanced telephone services, many telephone companies now implement a telephone communications network as an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) which has made it easier to provide a wide array of previously unavailable voice grade telephone service features. In an AIN system, telephone central offices, each of which serves as a signal switching point (SSP), detect one of a number of call processing events identified as AIN “triggers”. An SSP which detects a trigger suspends processing of the call which activated the trigger, compiles a call data message and forwards that message via a common channel interoffice signaling (CCIS) link to a database system, such as a Service Control Point (SCP). The SCP may be implemented as part of an integrated service control point (ISCP). If needed, the SCP can instruct the central office (SSP) at which the AIN trigger was activated to obtain and forward additional information, e.g., information relating to the call. Once sufficient information about the call has reached the ISCP, the ISCP accesses stored call processing information or records (CPRs) to generate from the received message data, a call control message. The call control message is then used to instruct the central office on how to process the call which activated the AIN trigger. As part of the call control message, an ISCP can instruct the central office to send the call to an outside resource, such as an intelligent peripheral (IP) using a send to outside resource (STOR) instruction. IPs are frequently coupled to SSPs to provide message announcement capabilities, voice recognition capabilities and other functionality which is not normally provided by the central office. The control message is normally communicated from the ISCP to the SSP handling the call via the CCIS link. Once received, the SCP completes the call in accordance with the instructions received in the control message.
One service which can be implemented with AIN functionality is Wide Area Centrex. Centrex takes a group of normal telephone lines and provides call processing to add business features to the otherwise standard telephone lines. For example, Centrex adds intercom capabilities to the lines of a specified business group so that a business customer can dial other stations within the same group, e.g., lines belong to the same company, using extension numbers such as a two, three, or four digit numbers, instead of the full telephone number associated with each called line. Other examples of Centrex service features include call transfer between users at different stations of a business group and a number of varieties of call forwarding. Thus, Centrex adds a bundle of business features on top of standard telephone line features without requiring special equipment, e.g., a private branch exchange (PBX) at the customer's premises. U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,571, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference, describes in detail a Wide Area Centrex system implemented using AIN techniques.
Voice dialing is a useful service which has been implemented in some known systems by having control logic in a telephone switch connect a caller to a voice dialing IP which provides the voice dialing service. The telephone switch may couple the subscriber to the voice dialing IP as a result of the subscriber calling a telephone number corresponding to the IP or entering a code which is detected by the switch. Such known voice dialing systems are not AIN based and therefore are somewhat limited in terms of the logic and information available for controlling connections to voice dialing apparatus, e.g., voice dialing IPs. Thus, the known techniques of using logic embedded in a switch to determine when and to which voice dialing IP a caller should be connected can lead to inefficient using of voice dialing IP resources and limit the ability of known voice dialing services to be implemented as an integral part of other services, e.g., Centrex Services.
Voice dialing is a particularly desirable service since it eliminates the requirement that a user of the voice dialing service remember the telephone number of the party being called. In various known voice dialing systems, speaker dependent speech recognition is used to identify spoken names. In such systems, a personal dialing directory is maintained for each subscriber of the voice dialing system. The personal dialing directory is a database which includes a speaker dependent speech recognition template for each of a plurality of names which may be spoken and a telephone number for each name. When used, the data, e.g., templates in a subscriber's directory, are retrieved; a speaker dependent speech recognition operation is performed on a spoken name provided by the subscriber; and then, assuming a name is recognized, the call is completed to the telephone number in the subscriber's personal dialing directory corresponding to the name. An IP may be used for performing the speech recognition and various other tasks associated with the known voice dialing operation. One particular system for implementing voice dialing is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,063.
While voice dialing systems which use speaker dependent speech recognition to identify spoken names enjoy a high degree of recognition accuracy, they have the disadvantage of requiring that a user of the system provide one or more utterances of each name for which speaker dependent speech recognition templates are to be generated. Thus, a voice signal, e.g., voice telephone connection, is normally required when adding or updating names in a personal dialing directory. In addition, the need to provide multiple utterances of each name in the personal dialing directory can prove irritating to some customers.
In an attempt to make services provided using AIN techniques easier to manage, management of AIN services such as, e.g., call forwarding, via a personal computer and the Internet have been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,016, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference, describes a system wherein a web page type interface is provided, which allows a subscriber access to control and reporting functionalities of an AIN system via the Internet.
Unfortunately, the use of speaker dependent speech recognition templates, with the corresponding need for multiple speech samples to train each name in a personal dialing directory, has made Internet based management of existing voice dialing systems of the type described above difficult to implement.
While existing Centrex and voice dialing services are useful, it is desirable that such services continue to be improved and enhanced. With regard to voice dialing, it is desirable that new methods and apparatus be devised which would allow for Internet based management of voice dialing services. It is also desirable that new methods of providing voice dialing services be devised which will allow voice dialing services to be implemented as part of AIN based service packages such a Centrex. With regard to Centrex, it is desirable that Centrex service be enhanced to support voice dialing functionality as well as Internet based management of said functionality.